Kicwamba massacre 19 years later

Jun 10, 2017

We are coming to 20 years and government seems to have forgotten about us

It is 19 years, since the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) attacked Kicwamba Technical College, in Kabarole district burning 80 students to death and abducting more than 100.

The dark day, of June 8, 1998 will always remain in the hearts of Ugandans when the rebels commanded by Jamil Mukulu descended on the innocent students and massacred them mercilessly.

Mukulu has since been arrested and detained by the Uganda government.

A mass grave where 27 of the students who were burnt were buried stands overlooking the Rwenzori Mountain where the rebels escaped to after killing the students.

Currently the college boosts of over 600 students. Security has been tightened with a permanent army detach at the school premises.

The ADF is a rebel group which has operated in western Uganda near the Rwenzori mountains and caused a lot of havoc in the nineties resulting in the suffering of the population in the area.

They committed atrocities against the local civilian population, driving them from their homes and farms in the mountains into lowland towns.


Rogers Kanti, who works in Masindi as a business man is a former vice guild president and survivor of the massacre.

He says government has neglected the survivors by failing to compensate them.

"We are coming to 20 years and government seems to have forgotten about us," Kanti says.

At the time of the attack, Kanti was a first year student offering agriculture engineering mechanic.

The group was defeated by the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) and its ruminants forced to DR Congo.

Several members of the rebel outfit have surrendered or were captured while majority were killed by the army.

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